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The Macintosh fonts are in .sit compressed files. You may need to download the freeware Stuffit Expander.

The Windows fonts are in compressed zip files. You will need a utility such as NetZip or WinZip or to re-expand them.
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Installation and Use

Each compressed file that you download contains the TrueType font and an instruction sheet in rich text format. The sheet contains a description of the font, a chart showing each baybayin character with its related keystroke, another chart showing the Unicode designation of each character and a brief tutorial on baybayin spelling and punctuation. Note: the Mac versions are not Unicode compliant yet.

Visit the Font Help page for installation instructions.
 

Tagalog Doctrina 1593 ©

Tagalog Doctrina 1593 is based on the typeface used in one of the very first books printed in the Philippines, the Doctrina Christiana of 1593. It is the earliest documented form of the Baybayin. A virama ("+" shaped) kudlít is included with this font, although it was not introduced until 1620 in the Ilokano version of the Doctrina Cristiana.

Download the Tagalog Doctrina 1593 TrueType font:
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Baybayin Lopez © (1620)

This font is based on the typeface of the Ilkoano book, Libro a naisurátan amin ti bagás ti Doctrina Cristiana… written by Francisco Lopez in 1620 but bearing the publishing date of 1621. It also appeared in two earlier Tagalog books, Arte y reglas de la lengua Tagala (1610) by Francisco Blancas de San Jose and Vocabulario de lengua Tagala (1613) by Pedro de San Buenaventura. Lopez also used this font in his Arte de la lengua yloca of 1627. There are at least two versions of this typeface. This version was most likely hand-traced.  The 1895 reprint of the Ilokano Doctrina shows a more compact version with exaggerated curves and loops. Lopez introduced his “reformed” spelling with this typeface in 1621 but it did not succeed. This was the only typeface to include his + kudlit while the baybayin script was still in common use among Filipinos.

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Bisaya Hervás © (1787)

Bisaya Hervás is based on a typeface that appeared in 1787 in an Italian work by Lorenzo Hervás y Pandura, Saggio prattico delle lingue… (Practical examples of languages with prologues and a collection of the Lord's prayer in over 300 languages and dialects). Because this book was not written specifically about the Philippines or Philippine languages, I believe that the type style is taken from an earlier source. It most closely resembles Ezguerra's typeface of 1663 in his Arte de la lengua Bisaya en la provincia de Leyte. The samples used to create this font are from two Austrian books that reproduced Cebuano text in this baybayin style, Illustrirte Geschichte der Schrift (The Illustrated History of Writing) by Karl Faulman, 1880 and Sprachenhalle (Hall of Languages) by Alois Auer, 1847.

Although the Spanish + shaped kudlít was not used in these documents, it is available in this font. There was also no letter for Wa; the U/O character was used instead. The R sound was represented by the letter Da in Bisayan words and the La character was used for Spanish words. Many thanks go to Mr. Wolfgang Kuhl for providing scans of these documents and some source infromation.

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Bikol Mintz © (1835)

Bikol Mintz is modelled after the cover art on the Bikol-English Dictionary (1985) by Malcolm Warren Mintz & José Del Rosario Britanico. It's source was an 1835 table of “Ancient characters with which these natives of the Tagalogs and Camarines used to write” (Carácteres antíguos con los que escribian estos Naturales del Tagalog y Camarínes), from the Pascual Enrile collection 18 of the Biblioteca del Museo Naval in Madrid. (ms. 2287, doc. 32:214-214v.) Many thanks go to Dr. Mintz for providing the source information for this font.

Ancient Bikolanos called the baybayin basahan and the characters were called guhit. The V shaped vowel kudlíts were called kaholowan and they were placed beside the letters (to the left for the e and i vowels and to the right for o and u) instead of above and below. According to Marcos de Lisboa (1628), the people of Bikol wrote vertically from the bottom upwards but the 1835 document showed horizontal writing that flowed from left to right. This font only allows for placing the kudlits above or below the characters but they can be moved to other positions in a drawing programme. Notice that there is a special character for Ra, and the Spanish + shaped kudlít has been added to this font.

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Tagalog Stylized © (1992)

Tagalog Stylized is a modern composite of many examples from the past. It is based primarily, though loosely, on what was my first acquaintance with the baybayin, an excerpt from Lope K. Santos' Balarilà, 1946. His script resembles one found in Fr. Gaspar de San Agustin's Compendio de la Lengua tagala, 1703. This present font should not be considered a historically accurate example of the baybayin. The characters’ shapes, sizes and weights have been made uniform in order to present a neat and elegant printed appearance.

Download the Tagalog Stylized TrueType font:
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A Note On Baybayin Styles and Names

Although there are many forms of the baybayin, it must be remembered that they are not unique to the languages that share their names. That is to say, the baybayin, like our modern alphabet, can be written or printed in many ways and each style can be used to write in any language. Just as italic printing is not only for Italian, a so-called Tagalog baybayin is not just for Tagalog or a supposed Ilokano script only for Ilokano etc.

The baybayin is a single writing system. The confusion between the forms of the baybayin and various Filipino languages may be due to historical circumstances or just sloppy reporting on the part of some historians. For example, the typeface chosen by Father Francisco Lopez in 1620 to print the Ilokano version of the Doctrina Christiana looks different to the one used in the Tagalog version of 1593 but they are both just two styles of the one baybayin. However, the Lopez typeface has since come to be mistaken in some circles as the "Ilokano alphabet" simply because it was used most notably in an Ilokano book. 

Other forms of the baybayin such as Bikol and Bisaya (shown above) have similar histories. Their origins can be traced only as far back as certain modern printed documents of the Spanish era that were written in their respective languages – their particular styles originating in the artistry of the authors.

My point is that you enjoy the fonts and use them according to your taste no matter what your language. I have only used the language names reluctantly to describe my fonts because, for right or wrong reasons, that is how the styles are generally known.

Last updated: 24 May, 2005